Pros

Cons

Bottom Line

The Dell Latitude 7200 2-in-1 is a detachable Windows tablet that includes comprehensive IT security features, along with excellent build quality and the field's niftiest kickstand.

Aug. 9, 2019

Tablets running Windows 10 are a niche alternative to the Apple iPad and Android-powered ones. Windows tablets with enterprise IT features are even rarer. One of the few is the Dell Latitude 7200 2-in-1 (starts at $979; $2,119 as tested), a well-thought-out tablet with a kickstand and a keyboard cover that lets you use it as a laptop in a pinch. It's not unequivocally better than the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet, which is our current top pick for people who need a blend of tablet portability and enterprise IT security. Still, it is an excellent alternative for people—especially businesspeople—who would otherwise consider a Microsoft Surface Pro 6 or an Apple iPad Pro.

The Current Windows Tablet Landscape

Apple's latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro is an astonishingly powerful tablet, with theoretical performance better than that of many more expensive regular laptops. It's hobbled by the fact that it can only run the iOS operating system, though. Not only does iOS greatly restrict how you interact with a tablet compared with a desktop OS like Windows 10, it also restricts available software to apps from third-party developers who have created modified, Apple-approved versions.

For large enterprises with comprehensive IT security policies designed around Windows, the iPad Pro's use of iOS represents additional challenges. So there are a few companies who have decided to make tablets that not only run Windows, but also include IT manageability features like Intel vPro. The Latitude 7200 2-in-1, made of silver aluminum with a black border around the screen, is Dell's latest contribution to this very niche market. It complements the Latitude 5290 2-in-1 tablet, and goes head-to-head with the ThinkPad X1 Tablet.

The Surface Pro 6 is an honorary member of this niche, thanks to its status as the spiritual grandfather of Windows tablets. Some IT departments with less stringent security requirements will undoubtedly want to consider it, as they will the iPad Pro, but neither offers vPro, smart card readers, or other enterprise features that many companies rely on.

The Latitude 7200 2-in-1 has the same general physical layout as the X1 Tablet and the very similar Latitude 5290 2-in-1 that went on sale last year. At the front is a 12.3-inch display, and above it is a webcam complete with facial recognition sensors to allow you to log into your Windows 10 account without touching anything. Around back, there's a built-in kickstand that lets you prop up the tablet like an easel on your desk. All of these features mimic the Surface Pro, and as a result all of these tablets have similar dimensions. The Latitude 7200 2-in-1 tablet weighs 1.9 pounds and measures 0.37 by 11.5 by 8.2 inches (HWD) without a cover.

There are a few subtle differences, both good and bad. With native resolution of 1,920 by 1,280 pixels (a bit higher than full HD's 1,920 by 1,080), the Latitude 7200 2-in-1's display has a much lower resolution than the Surface Pro 6 or the ThinkPad X1 Tablet does. The display looks fine for quick web searches, but in general, I find a full HD resolution to be rather ho-hum when looking at a tablet. It's noticeably grainier than either the 2,736-by-1,824-pixel Surface Pro 6 or the 3,000-by-2,000-pixel native resolution of the X1 Tablet.

The iPad Pro, with a very slightly larger (12.9-inch) display, has a lower resolution of 2,732 by 2,048 pixels, but it can adjust its refresh rate in real time up to 120Hz, compared with the fixed 60Hz of the Latitude 7200 2-in-1. This results in noticeably smoother interactions with onscreen elements, especially when scrolling and switching between apps, or drawing with an active digital stylus. (Like the Apple Pencil, the Dell Premium Active Pen is an optional extra.)

If the Latitude 7200 2-in-1's display is slightly behind the pack, its physical security features and port selection are anything but. This tablet is bristling with connectivity, including two USB Type C ports, one of which is used for charging the battery, and both of which can support Thunderbolt 3 speeds. There's also a headphone jack, a slot to accept a physical locking cable to secure the tablet in public areas, a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A port, and even a full-size SD card reader. This port complement is similar to what the X1 Tablet offers, and it far outshines both the iPad Pro (with its single USB-C port) and the Surface Pro 6 (which includes a USB 3.0 port but lacks USB-C or Thunderbolt 3).

You'll also find a fingerprint reader in one of the back corners of the Latitude 7200 2-in-1. If your IT security policy allows it, logging in with the fingerprint reader is a nice alternative to face recognition sign-ins. Many policies don't allow this, however. For better security, you can equip a Latitude 7200 2-in-1 with either a contact or contactless SmartCard reader and issue physical cards to your employees to let them log in.

A Laptop in a Pinch

The Latitude 7200 2-in-1 I'm reviewing comes with a keyboard cover. It's essential for using it as a laptop, since in addition to full-size and rather sturdy backlit keys, the cover also includes a small touchpad. It's nice to see that Dell includes the keyboard cover with some models. You must pay extra to add one to even the most expensive Surface Pro 6 or the iPad Pro, which is burdensome to their potential buyers, who have already shelled out considerable sums on the tablets themselves.

You might say that the keyboard cover transforms the Latitude 7200 2-in-1 into a laptop, but that description is a bit of a stretch. Propping up the entire contraption on your lap with the keyboard unfolded and the kickstand extended is an inelegant solution, and it's prone to sliding off my very long legs. It's certainly a poor substitute for a real laptop, and a shorter person would likely have even more difficulty.

Stick to using the keyboard on a desk and you'll be fine, however. I especially appreciate the nifty automatic kickstand deployment that occurs when you press the edge of the tablet firmly against a level surface. Moreover, the keyboard cover's strong magnet allows it to either lie flat against the desk or at a slight angle, and it detaches very easily. As long as you hold it near the connector on the Latitude 7200 2-in-1's bottom edge, it will snap into place with virtually no guidance.

In addition to the front-facing 5-megapixel camera, there's also a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera centered above the Dell logo. Still photos taken with the latter aren't as impressive as those taken with the iPad Pro's 12-megapixel shooter, but at least both of the Latitude 7200 2-in-1's cameras support 1080p video at 30 frames per second (fps), which makes for smoother video conferencing than the 720p cameras that are common on conventional laptops.

Wireless connections include 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Next-generation Wi-Fi 6 is missing, and while there is a SIM card slot, Dell isn't currently offering versions of the Latitude 7200 2-in-1 with an LTE modem for sale in the US.

It's nice to see that Dell offers a three-year warranty on the version of the Latitude 7200 2-in-1 I'm reviewing. Business machines often have warranties considerably longer than the one-year limited warranties that come standard with consumer models like the Surface Pro 6 and iPad Pro. Dell offers many different support options for the Latitude 7200 2-in-1, including remote diagnosis and onsite support service for periods as long as five years. All of these will add to the Latitude 7200 2-in-1's final price.

Competent Performance From a Tablet

Despite its small size and handbag-friendly weight, the Latitude 7200 2-in-1 still manages to fit components that you'd expect to find in a larger laptop. In this review unit, they include a quad-core Intel Core i7-8650U CPU, 16GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD. Not only are these generous memory and storage amounts, but the Core i7 CPU also features multithreading, which means it can perform two discrete threads of processing per core instead of just one. This configuration could serve as a platform for crunching numbers in spreadsheets or editing video while connected to an external monitor.

Meanwhile, the base model features an Intel Core i5, 4GB of memory, and a 128GB drive. These are rather paltry specs for a flagship business machine, so unless you only plan to use the Latitude 7200 2-in-1 just as a platform for watching videos, giving presentations, or checking email, I recommend you spring for a higher-end configuration, like the one we tested.

You can see how the high-end configuration measures up against some of its main competitors in the chart below. For the purposes of comparing performance, the iPad Pro isn't included in this chart, because it uses a chip custom-designed by Apple and runs iOS, which means we aren't able to run our standard Windows benchmark tests on it. At least compared to its Windows-based competitors, though, the Latitude 7200 2-in-1 is an excellent performer that rivals many larger business laptops. I've included one, the HP EliteBook x360 1030 convertible, as a point of reference.

I've also included the Microsoft Surface Book 2 instead of the Surface Pro 6, because we tested the latter's performance using older tests whose results aren't comparable with our current ones. The Surface Book 2 is more expensive and better-equipped than the Surface Pro 6, but it's still a detachable 2-in-1 machine, so it's helpful for the purposes of comparison.

For an overall look at system performance, we use PCMark 10 and 8, holistic benchmark suites that simulate different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We use PCMark 10 to assess overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheet work, web browsing, and videoconferencing. The test generates a proprietary numeric score; higher numbers are better. PCMark 8, meanwhile has a Storage subtest that we use to assess the speed of the boot drive. This score is also a proprietary numeric score; again, higher numbers are better.

Since all of the systems have speedy SSDs, they all performed equally well on the PCMark 8 test. The Latitude 7200 2-in-1's performance on the PCMark 10 test is especially noteworthy, though, since it parallels the significantly more capable Surface Book 2.

Next is Maxon's CPU-crunching Cinebench R15 test, which is fully threaded to make use of all available processor cores and threads. Cinebench stresses the CPU rather than the GPU to render a complex image. The result is a proprietary score indicating a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads, and it's clearly a win for the Latitude 7200 2-in-1.

The same goes for our custom Adobe Photoshop image-editing benchmark, which applies a series of 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG test image. We time each operation and, at the end, add up the total execution time. The Photoshop test stresses CPU, storage subsystem, and RAM, but it can also take advantage of most GPUs to speed up the process of applying filters, so systems with powerful graphics chips or cards may see a boost.

Another fine showing. Graphics performance is a different story, however.

Since the Latitude 7200 2-in-1's graphics processor shares resources with the CPU, it's not great for intensive gaming, as our 3DMark and Superposition charts demonstrate. 3DMark measures relative graphics muscle by rendering sequences of highly detailed, gaming-style 3D graphics that emphasize particles and lighting. Unigine's Superposition test also renders and pans through a detailed 3D scene and measures how the system copes. It uses the company's eponymous graphics engine, offering a different 3D workload scenario than 3DMark, for a second opinion on the machine's graphical prowess.

The Surface Book 2's Nvidia GeForce chip dwarfs the integrated-graphics machines here. The Latitude 7200 2-in-1's low graphics scores aren't a mark against it, though. You wouldn't find intense 3D gaming very satisfying on a tablet, anyway, and simple games like Candy Crush work just fine. This is a specialized business product, not meant for zombie beatdowns and ancient-empire domination.

You will almost certainly be using the Latitude 7200 2-in-1 unplugged, though, so it's nice to see that it lasts 10 hours on our battery rundown test, which involves playing a local 720p video file with 50 percent screen brightness and Wi-Fi turned off until the battery dies. This isn't a stellar result, but it's comparable to what we saw from the X1 Tablet.

A Tempting Business Tablet

The Latitude 7200 2-in-1 fills a very narrow market niche. Many of the corporate executives who will be clamoring for their IT departments to issue them one might also be interested in the iPad Pro. The Latitude 7200 2-in-1 is a better choice than Apple's flagship tablet for large companies, if only because of its security features and that Windows 10 helps it play nice with a wide range of business requirements. Although the iPad Pro is a supremely powerful, well-designed tablet, iOS limits its use within the enterprise, as well as its compatibility with the software IT may be running in managed fashion.

As good as the Latitude 7200 2-in-1 is, though, it doesn't stand out enough to steal our Editors' Choice award away from the ThinkPad X1 Tablet. That slate offers comparable performance and features at a lower price, at least in the configuration we tested. If you don't need any of these tablets' security and manageability features, though, you would do much better to choose either the Surface Pro 6 or the iPad Pro.

About the Author

Tom is PCMag's San Francisco-based news reporter. He got his start in technology journalism by reviewing the latest hard drives, keyboards, and much more for PCMag's sister site, Computer Shopper. As a freelancer, he's written on topics as diverse as Borneo's rain forests, Middle Eastern airlines, and big data's role in presidential elections. A graduate of Middlebury College, Tom also has a master's journalism degree from New York University. Follow him on Twitter @branttom. See Full Bio